1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a joint construction for a brake pipe disposed through a panel such as a dash panel.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 7 and 8 show a connection joint for a brake pipe disposed through a dash panel. FIG. 9 is a route view of the brake pipe.
On a vehicle on which an engine room is arranged on the front side of a cabin through a dash panel, a master cylinder and a brake booster are disposed on the engine room side. Contrarily, on a vehicle on which an engine room is not provided at the front part of a vehicle body, such as a cab over type vehicle, in some cases, a master cylinder 51 and a brake booster 52 are disposed under an instrument panel, not shown, on the cabin side as shown in FIG. 9.
Therefore, brake pipes 53 connected to the master cylinder 51 for giving a liquid pressure to a brake system are divided into brake pipes 57 on the inside of a cabin (IN side) and brake pipes 58 on the outside of the cabin (OUT side). The brake pipes 57 on the inside of the cabin and the brake pipes 58 on the outside of the cabin are connected to a connection joint 56 installed in a through hole 55 formed in a dash panel 54 shown in FIG. 8, by which the brake pipes 57 and 58 are caused to communicate with each other.
The connection joint 56 is provided with a mounting flange 59 in an intermediate portion thereof. After the face of the mounting flange 59 is lapped on the IN-side surface of the dash panel 54 with a packing 60 held therebetween, the mounting flange 59 is fixed to the dash panel 54 by using bolts 61 and nuts 62. After the connection joint 56 is mounted to the dash panel 54, the brake pipes 57 and 58 are connected to the connection joint 56.
As shown in FIG. 8, the connection joint 56 has an IN-side connector 63 for the brake pipes 57 and an OUT-side connector 64 for the brake pipes 58, which are disposed coaxially with each other and substantially perpendicularly to the dash panel 54. Therefore, since the brake pipes 57 and 58 extend in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the dash panel 54, a wide space is needed to lay out the brake pipes 57 and 58. For this reason, it is difficult on a design basis to secure a space necessary for laying out other vehicle parts.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and an object thereof is to provide a joint construction for a brake pipe, which is capable of increasing the degree of freedom in laying out vehicle parts by decreasing a space in which a brake pipe is laid out.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a joint construction for a brake pipe, comprising a pipe joint which penetrates a vehicle body panel for separating a cabin from the outside of the cabin and is installed to the vehicle body panel; and brake pipes connected to a cabin-side connector of the pipe joint and an outside connector thereof, wherein of the cabin-side connector and the outside connector of the pipe joint, at least either one of the connectors is provided so as to face to the direction parallel with the vehicle body panel, and the brake pipe connected to the connector is disposed along the surface of the vehicle body panel.
Also, in the present invention, the vehicle body panel is a dash panel, the cabin-side connector of the pipe joint is provided so as to face to the direction parallel with the dash panel and the dash panel is provided with a control unit of a foot parking brake, and a space is provided between the dash panel and the control unit, whereby the pipe joint can be installed to the dash panel so as to be located in the space. Further, the pipe joint is formed into an L shape in cross section so that an outside connector of the pipe joint is disposed so as to face to the direction perpendicular to the dash panel, whereby an outside brake pipe can be disposed perpendicularly to the dash panel.
Still further, in the present invention, the pipe joint can be fixed to the vehicle body panel via a sealing member using a pair of bolts, and the paired bolts can be arranged on a diagonal line.